J.M.W. Turner
>
1830-35 Annual tourist
>
Midlands 1830
>
Kenilworth Sketchbook
>
Artwork
Joseph Mallord William Turner Warwick Castle from the Avon Bridge 1830
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 39 Recto:
Warwick Castle from the Avon Bridge 1830
D22048
Turner Bequest CCXXXVIII 39
Turner Bequest CCXXXVIII 39
Pencil on white wove paper, 120 x 203 mm
Inscribed by John Ruskin in blue ink ‘39’ top right
Stamped in black ‘CCXXXVIII – 39’ bottom right
Inscribed by John Ruskin in blue ink ‘39’ top right
Stamped in black ‘CCXXXVIII – 39’ bottom right
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Exhibition history
1878
Oxford Loan Collection, University Galleries, Oxford 1878–1909 or later (191; renumbered 152[a], as ‘Warwick’).
References
1904
E.T. Cook and Alexander Wedderburn eds., Library Edition: The Works of John Ruskin: Volume XIII: Turner: The Harbours of England; Catalogues and Notes, London 1904, p.566 (Oxford loans catalogue, 1878) no.152[a], as ‘Warwick’.
1909
A.J. Finberg, A Complete Inventory of the Drawings of the Turner Bequest, London 1909, vol.II, p.730, CCXXXVIII 39, as ‘Continuation of previous drawing; Warwick Castle, F39RectoCf. Water colour, engraved and published “England and Wales,” 1832’.
1952
A.C. Sewter, Water Colours by J.M.W. Turner, R.A., exhibition catalogue, City of Manchester Art Gallery 1952, p.20 under no.58.
1966
Francis W. Hawcroft, Exhibition of Watercolours by J.M.W. Turner, exhibition catalogue, Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester 1966, p.27 under no.37.
1979
Eric Shanes, Turner’s Picturesque Views in England and Wales 1825–1838, London 1979, p.156.
1984
Craig Hartley, Turner Watercolours in the Whitworth Art Gallery, exhibition catalogue, Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester 1984, p.48 under no.38.
1997
Charles Nugent and Melva Croal, Turner Watercolors from Manchester, exhibition catalogue, Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, Memphis 1997, p.84 under no.51.
This is a continuation of the view of the River Avon and Warwick Castle from the west on folio 38 verso opposite (D22047), under which the subject is discussed; the double-page sketch was recognised by John Ruskin and others1 as the source of a watercolour of about 1830 (Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester),2 engraved in 1832 for Turner’s Picturesque Views in England and Wales (Tate impressions: T04594, T04595).
On this page Caesar’s Tower, the gatehouse and Guy’s Tower are shown, with the pinnacled tower of St Mary’s Church beyond (drawn twice) in the town to the north-west. In the foreground only a couple of stone balusters of the bridge are shown, and in the watercolour there are extensive repairs to the parapet in progress, but this was probably artistic licence on Turner’s part, as no such work is mentioned in the castle’s records.3
Matthew Imms
August 2013
How to cite
Matthew Imms, ‘Warwick Castle from the Avon Bridge 1830 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, August 2013, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, September 2014, https://www